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Dear Gen Z and other assorted youths
I love seeing your
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ„" title="Feuer" aria-label="Emoji: Feuer"> for social justice, especially Black Lives Matter
But so many of you are out without masks!https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ€Ż" title="Explodierender Kopf" aria-label="Emoji: Explodierender Kopf">
Did you know that these are related?
Letâs do a quick threadhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ§”" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">
I love seeing your
But so many of you are out without masks!
Did you know that these are related?
Letâs do a quick thread
So hereâs the thing. Racism is everywhere. Even-especially?- in healthcare.
Iâm a NYChttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ„" title="Krankenhaus" aria-label="Emoji: Krankenhaus"> doctor so I know my Black patients are much more likely to get very sick and die from most diseases, and #covid is no exception.
Why?
Iâm a NYC
Why?
Systemic racism. In so many interconnected and inseparable ways. Letâs focus on covid. This disease hits crowded places hard. So intergenerational economic racism and housing, a complicated topic, means that my Black patients live in more crowded places.
These crowded places are in areas with less funding- for preventive health initiatives, schools, services, you name it. All the things that buffer against a plague and promote good health of a community tend to go to wealthier, whiter communities.
Like mine. Letâs examine my situation. Iâm in the suburbs. I live in a house. I can stay inside or play with my daughter in my yard if I want. I can order groceries. I can drive to work. I can distance really, really well. And I have been.
My patients who have been oppressed by intergenerational systemic racism? They disproportionately have less ability to do this. Geography and housing are important. Also just having $$, which my circumstances made it likely for me to have. And also jobs.
Black people and POC make up a huge proportion of the essential workforce. The ability to work from home doesnât come equally. The ability to move to the suburbs, a parentâs country house, leave cities altogether isnât there equally.
In med school we learned how race made it more likely to have certain diseases. But this is rarely true. Itâs actually RACISM that makes people more vulnerable. Because the thing about public health is that it includes almost everything in a community.
My young friends, who maybe arenât even on twitter but maybe will see this somehow, social justice encompasses everything. We donât get to decide which parts we care about, because it doesnât work unless we try to fix ALL of it.
Youâre living in a country whose leadership doesnât care about science or health. A lot of your parents donât either, and scream at me when I ask them to wear masks or step aside so I can safely pass. Can you imagine what they say/do to Black and brown ppl who âget in their wayâ?
You are social justice warriors, and I know you can help us. We want to make this country better, and itâs up to those groups in power (https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đââïž" title="Happy woman raising one hand" aria-label="Emoji: Happy woman raising one hand">) to do it. But itâs not just hashtags and protests. Itâs the choices we make every single day.
Can you put a piece of cloth on your face and avoid gathering in groups so that the people who have no choice but to go back into the world can do it safely? Itâs hot out, but itâs not so bad. I promise. And isnât it better than being stuck inside for months?
In the end, thatâs the other truth. You donât even have to care about other people to know that wearing a mask is smart. Itâs what will make things open faster and stay open longer. Itâs what will make us all go back to normal quicker.
Remember that normal life? When you played with friends after school or made a tiktok or whatever it is young people do? Masks can get us there. So wear yours. Wear it everytime you leave the house. Cover your nose and chin. And just keep it on.
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